International

South Sudan: Commander Of UN Forces Sacked

The UN Secretary General has ordered the dismissal due to ineffective response to the July 2016 violence in Juba.

Lieutenant General Johnson Mogoa Kimani Ondieki, commander of the United Nations forces in South Sudan is immediately replaced following the instructions of UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon. The UN’s scribe spokesman Stéphane Dujarric in a press briefing on November 1, 2016 said, Mr Ban has “asked for the immediate replacement of the force commander,” The New York Times reported.

The decision of the UN Secretary General comes after a report by a panel of outside investigators, he appointed to probe into the allegations that South Sudanese troops killed, raped civilians and looted property in the capital, Juba last July. The investigators in the report published on November 1, 2016 said, “a lack of leadership on the part of key senior Mission personnel culminated in a chaotic and ineffective response to the violence,” The New York Times quoted. In response to the report, Ban Ki-moon is quoted as saying he was, “deeply distressed by these findings.” He further reiterated his “outrage over the acts of violence committed in Juba in July and the continuing betrayal of the people of South Sudan by too many of its leaders.”

The report says UN peacekeeping forces stationed less than a mile away did not react to pleas for help when South Sudanese troops entered the Terrain Hotel and began attacking the civilians, many of them Western aid workers, who had sought refuge inside. “During the attack, civilians were subjected to and witnessed gross human rights violations, including murder, intimidation, sexual violence and acts amounting to torture perpetrated by armed government soldiers,” a statement from the report read.